Orosarcophaga, Townsend, 1927

Gomes, Marina Morim, Mello-Patiu, Cátia Antunes De & Couri, Márcia Souto, 2025, The Neotropical genus Orosarcophaga Townsend: illustrated key and redecription of Orosarcophaga grisea Lopes (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), Zootaxa 5716 (4), pp. 571-578 : 572-573

Orosarcophaga

Orosarcophaga Townsend, 1927:231 . Type species: Orosarcophaga ornata Townsend, 1927 , by monotypy.

Oxyvinia Dodge, 1966: 692 . Type species: Oxyvinia piliventris Dodge, 1966 , by original designation.

The genus Orosarcophaga was initially described by Townsend (1927) based on one male and one female of Orosarcophaga ornata . In the original description, only coloration characters were present, and no holotype was designated ( Townsend 1927; Mello-Patiu & Riccardi 2021). Subsequently, Townsend (1938) provided a more complete description of the genus and designated the male specimen as the “ holotype ”, however, this specimen is actually the lectotype. However, the author did not include the description and illustrations of the terminalia ( Mello-Patiu & Riccardi 2021).

The genus Oxyvinia was described by Dodge (1966) based on two species: Oxyvinia piliventris and Oxyvinia grata . Dodge (1966) designated O. piliventris as type species based on two males from Venezuela, while O. grata was initially described by Lopes (1953) in Dexosarcophaga , although with some reservations regarding its generic assignment. Dodge (1996) included as generic characters the male sternite 5 cleft nearly to the base, cercus with an external subapical tooth and phallus separated into 2 segments.

Lopes (1969) enumerated five species within Oxyvinia , and with the exception of O. piliventris , the remaining four species had not been originally included under the genus Oxyvinia . Pape (1996) listed 11 species of Oxyvinia and presented the following generic diagnosis (besides larval characters): row of frontal bristles almost parallel, parafacial setae very small and hairlike, anterior postgenal setae black, postalar wall setose, male mid femur with ctenidium of normal spines, male sternite 5 deeply cleft with almost parallel sides, terminalia red, juxta reduced or not developed.

Mello-Patiu & Riccardi (2021) revisited and illustrated the holotype of Orosarcophaga ornata , concluding that Orosarcophaga and Oxyvinia were synonyms. They provided an updated generic diagnosis as well as a list with the 11 recognized Orosarcophaga species. Although Mello-Patiu & Riccardi (2021) did not include coloration in their generic diagnosis, we observed a common pattern in Orosarcophaga species: the intense golden microtomentum on the head and thorax, particularly in the humeral region.

Orosarcophaga ’s distribution is restricted to the Neotropical Region ( Fig. 1 ). The distributional patterns of Orosarcophaga remain unclear, and only Orosarcophaga excisa seems to be associated with savanna environments in the Amazon region ( Carvalho-Filho et al. 2022) and other biomes. Although species of Orosarcophaga exhibit a wide distributional range, the under-sampling of these species presents challenges in recognizing their distributional patterns.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distribution map for all known species of Orosarcophaga.